Tired of staying in a small (in size, but not necessarily in price) hotel in the centre of a great European city? We certainly were, especially when travelling with more than two people, and more especially if these included children.

We opted for staying in an apartment at the heart of Paris’s St Germain a few years ago, and have never looked back! Admittedly the apartment was literally just around the corner from the tempting outdoor food market in Rue de Buci, making it easy to pick up the few food provisions we needed, and close to an equally tempting choice of restaurants for dining out.

There is no doubt that staying in a city apartment, not only gives you more space, but it immediately makes you feel like a ‘local’ as you settle into your home from home, and familiarise yourself with your neighbourhood. Our love affair with city apartments quickly expanded from Paris, to Italian cities and towns, including Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Lucca, Siena and Positano. Then cameBarcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin … and of course London… and more. The main heart of our programme continues to be Europe, although we do have some enticing choices in Marrakech, New York, Cape Town and Queenstown. What all these destinations have in common is that the accommodation is central and, usually, guests can easily walk to restaurants, shops and main sights, or at least to convenient public transport in order to get around. On arrival and/or departure, we can arrange transfers from the airport or train station and also book local tours, help with restaurant advice and arrange staff, if required.

One of the nicest city pastimes (as well as sampling the local food and wine) is to take in an exhibition, and we have made a particular feature of interesting events taking place in our cities and towns. A cultural events’ listing for each city and town (with a link through to the museum or gallery for purchasing tickets) can be accessed from the home page, or the relevant city page, and these are updated regularly, along with recommended books, tours and other local experiences.

What’s coming next? Well, we have recently added a boutique selection of luxury villas and chalets in some of our favourite destinations, including the Greek islands, Tuscany, the Amalfi coast, the Balearic islands and the Croatian islands. We are sticking to the concept of just doing what we know and love. There are plenty of other impersonal websites offering to be everything to everybody, but we hope that, by knowing our properties and destinations well and by offering a personal service (and we don’t mind at all talking on the phone, rather than by e-mail!) our numbers of repeat clients will continue to multiply.